Miscellaneous Questions

Miscellaneous Questions

Q1: Minimum requirements

What are the minimum requirements to run Phoenix 2?

This information is accurate as at Phoenix 2 Version 6.3.11.

If you have an Apple Device, you'll need a minimum OS version of iOS v12.0 or iPadOS v12.0 or macOS Big Sur (v11.0) with Apple M1 chip or later. Assuming you are upgraded to the latest possible Apple OS versions, this means an Apple Mobile Device of minimally:

• iPad 5th Gen (March 2017) or higher
• Any iPad Air
• iPad Mini 2 (November 2013) or higher
• Any iPad Pro
• iPhone 5S (September 2013) or higher
• iPod Touch 6th or 7th Gen (July 2015 & May 2019)

If you have an Android device, you need to have a 64 bit architecture device, which is determined by your processor. you'll need a minimum version of Android Oreo, or Android v8.0.0 (Android API Level 26). It is recommended to run Phoenix 2 on Android Upside Down Cake, or Android 14 (Android API Level 34). There are too many Android devices so I'll not be listing the minimum Android phone requirements here.

Q2: High FPS Mode

What are the minimum requirements for High FPS Mode to be enabled?

High FPS Mode allows for the game to be played at a smoother 90 or 120 FPS.
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On iDevices, High FPS Mode is supported on devices that support ProMotion, which is just a fancy word for 120 FPS support. Specifically, only these iDevices support ProMotion:

• iPad Pro (2017 and newer)
• 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021 and newer)
• iPhone 13 or newer, only the Pro & Pro Max versions

For Android devices, any devices that support screens that are capable of above 60 FPS will have High FPS Mode enabled. Note: For some reason, even some phones that support 120 FPS don't seem to be capable of this option. It's difficult to say what is the true requirement.

On a related note, you may also get the transmission from Operator Mian as such: "High FPS Mode cannot be enabled because the device is thermally throttled." This message appears based on the device's operating system. It is a device feature built in by manufacturers to send out a warning to the Phoenix 2 app if the manufacturers decide that your device could not handle it. This is a protection mechanism by your device's manufacturer and cannot be normally bypassed. Do understand that allowing High FPS Mode to be enabled if this warning is ignored may lead to catastrophic circumstances where your device might be damaged or even destroyed.

Q3: Lost Progress

I lost my Firi Account / old progress on a local device.

Contact the dev EL through phoenix2@firigames.com and he can recover the account for you once you provide sufficient details.

Q4: Screenshake

How do I disable the annoying screen-shake in this game?

There is no way to disable screen-shake. Learn to adapt to it.

However, the amount of screenshake has been fine tuned over the years, especially those that come from main weapon usage. While it is still not perfect, most screenshakes should be quite bearable. Screenshakes are a creative decision from the devs and are part of the sensation and flow the game creates, so it will never be removed.

Q5: Screen Flares

How do I disable the annoying screen flares in this game?

There is no way to disable the screen flares brought about by Laser Storm, the Prometheus Array background bright lighting & invader death explosions. However, you could try applying color filters to the game by doing it in your device's system settings. Otherwise, you just have to learn to adapt to it, even if lasers are very difficult to see in the Prometheus Array background.

Q6: Act Transitions

The Act transitions are messing up my positioning of my touch and my view of my ship!

You may consider a few options to adapt to these Act transitions:

• Put your touch slightly offset away from your ship's core so that you can always see your core clearly
• Adjust once after the Act transition occurs

The screen zoom outs occur from the center of the screen which is currently the best option according to the devs after much experimentation on their end.

Q7: Game Language

How do I change the language in-game?

You can't. Phoenix 2 uses the language of your device. Thus, you have to go into iOS Settings to change your device language. Translate the following to the current language you are at now: From home screen, tap on the Settings app. Then tap in order: General > Language & Region > [Device] Language, and then select the appropriate language. Tap the 1st option to confirm the change to the new language. Replace [Device] with either iPhone or iPad.

Q8: Ship Piloting

What is the best way to place your touch on screen to pilot a ship well?

The most recommended convenient way is to use your finger and place it just below your ship's core, and offset slightly to the side of your dominant hand. The relative touch will ensure the ship's core will stay just above your finger. For smaller phones, most players hold their phones with their dominant hand and then use their thumb on their dominant hand as the primary finger to move the ship around. If you do not have or like the use of 3D Touch, the second finger is usually a finger (likely the thumb) from the other hand, which is fixed at the bottom corner of the screen.

For tablet users, I recommend using your second / index finger on your dominant hand as the primary finger. I would prefer using your third / middle finger for the secondary finger, although using a finger (likely your thumb) from the other hand also works. I would also recommend putting your tablet on a stand which is heavy and has strong enough friction pads to ensure it doesn't move around when you play. I like to incline my tablet at an approximate 60° to the surface you put your stand on, but find your comfortable angle. I do not recommend putting your iPad flat on the surface as it is quite difficult to see properly.

However, if you are looking at some serious speedrunning or crazy survival skills, you can opt to get a stylus. A mesh fibre tip or precision disc stylus works fine. Try not to get those rubber or silicon tip stylus as that has friction which will impede your performance. The technique is similar to using your finger, offsetting the point of contact between your stylus and the screen slightly below and towards the side of your hand that is holding the stylus. Using a stylus is similar to drawing paths through bullet mazes, so generally hold your stylus like you would write. I won't quite recommend holding your stylus like how calligraphers hold their brushes, but you are welcome to try and even adopt it if you really find it more comfortable for you. Use a finger (likely the thumb) on the other hand as your secondary finger.

Q9: Join Community

How do I join a community?

On the main menu, tap on the tab called Community. Under the Community box, there are 2 options. The first option is Join. In the text box of the pop-up box, type in the exact name of the community you wish to join. Refer to a full list of many known communities here. It is cAse sEnsItive, so be careful as a different casing of letters will either mean joining an entirely different community you do not desire, or result in an error. There is no search function. The second option is Create. Type in the name of the community you want to create, and bear in mind once again it is cAse sEnsItive, so be careful of the casing when creating the community and disseminating to other players for them to join. Creating a community costs ¢175.

Q10: Pilot Name

How do I change my pilot name?

On the main menu, tap on the Pilot icon , then tap on your current pilot name that is directly above your current rank (not your pilot name at the top left corner of the screen).

Q11: Screen Borders

Why can't I move my ship all the way to the extreme vertical / horizontal edge of the screen? Why are these dotted lines hindering my movement?

These arbitrary borders are intentional in Phoenix 2 in order to keep the competitive playing field fair, so that all players are limited to the same approximately 4:3 playing space, with the ship's core being sized proportionately. The grey dotted lines therefore indicate that you have the arbitrary borders and cannot go any further in that direction. They become more visible the closer you are to the border, and less visible the further away you are from them. The above image on the left shows the grey dotted border lines rendered by an Android device, while the above image on the right shows the grey dotted border lines rendered by an iOS device. Your border may look different from the ones shown above depending on your device.

Note that there are some Android devices that are completely unable to show these grey dotted lines due to the GPU method rendering used. This is a known issue.

Q12: Record/Livestream

How do I record videos or livestream?

Make sure you have selected the Play tab at the bottom bar in the main menu as highlighted below with 1. The video recording is toggled with the button highlighted with 2. Simply press Play after toggling it on and all runs will be recorded until that button highlighted below with 2 is tapped again. The video recording can be viewed after your run is over, and you can save it or share it accordingly.

Do remember to toggle the video recording off before you force close the Phoenix 2 app, otherwise all recorded videos while the Phoenix 2 app was active will be permanently stuck as part of the Documents & Data of the Phoenix 2 app. This snowballs every time you forget to do so and there's no way to get rid of it even if you do remember to do this the next time. This causes precious space on your device to be taken up, and there is no way to retrieve those videos anymore. The only way to resolve this is to delete and reinstall Phoenix 2. This can be dangerous since if you have a local account that is not tied to a Firi Account and you delete the Phoenix 2 app, it will be lost. (You can contact Firi Games to retrieve the local account through support@firigames.com , however)

The livestream button can be found at the top corner, as highlighted below with 3. You'll need to have a livestreaming app in your device in order to use this option. The options available are YouTube Gaming, Mobcrush and Periscope Live Video Streaming. Video recording and live streaming are different as video recording only records when gameplay is active, while live streaming records all activity in Phoenix 2 including menu and leaderboard navigation.

If you do not see the 2 buttons, that means your device is unfortunately not supported. Simply use your in-built OS recording function to record your videos.

Q13: Wave Difficulty

How does the wave difficulty indicator work? I don't understand why it shows a lower percentage of completion than what I can count from the leaderboards!

The wave difficulty indicator indicates how many flights/attempts by ALL players terminated in that wave. It is NOT how many players got stuck at that wave, as shown on the leaderboards. Many players will take more than one flight/attempt for that mission, and each flight/attempt by each player will count as a tally in the histogram bar chart.

Similarly, the completion is the percentage of the number of flights by ALL players that completed the mission over the total flights/attempts by ALL players, rather than the percentage of players who cleared the mission.

According to the dev, data in the histogram charts are flushed at random times throughout the day. Wave Completion data is not retained for missions that have expired, so looking back at older missions will say "No Live Intel".

Q14: Veterancy Badge

What is this Veteran badge that I see on many players on the leaderboards when i tap on their name?

The Veterancy Badge on their name shows the number of years that they have been playing the game.

1. Veteran 1 means the player has been playing for between 1-2 years.
2. Veteran 2 means the player has been playing for between 2-3 years.
3. Veteran 3 means the player has been playing for between 3-4 years.
4. Veteran 4 means the player has been playing for between 4-5 years.
5. Veteran 5 means the player has been playing for between 5-6 years.
6. Veteran 6 means the player has been playing for between 6-7 years.
7. Veteran 7 means the player has been playing for between 7-8 years.
8. And so on...

The number of years the player has been playing is calculated based on the date the very first score was being set in the first training mission (when your rank was Rookie). Technically, it is possible to play only the first training mission 5 years ago, and the player is seen to have achieved Veteran 5 when you scroll back to your first training mission and click on the player's name.

The limit of Veterancy is obviously the number of years Phoenix 2 has been out in the public. Phoenix 2 is first released publicly on July 16, 2016.

Q15: Credit Earning

I earn too little credits in this game. Why can't I have more ways to earn credits?

First of all, Phoenix 2 is designed as a mobile game to pick up and play a few minutes, then put it down and get on with your life. Thus, once you have completed your 3 daily missions (and maybe your community missions, and maybe also watch the ads to gain credits and revives), that is all the credits you can earn. Come back another day to earn more credits. When starting out, you can also play more to level up quickly, gaining some credits in the process. But soon, you will find that gaining credits through leveling up is impractical as the XP jump between levels is exponential.

Also, it's a free-to-play game. You don't even need to spend real life money to upgrade 2 or 3 good ships and enjoy the game as it is. Compared to many other free-to-play games out there that include gacha mechanics that is almost considered gambling, this game offers you a fair amount of credits. It is not tough to fully max or ult a ship, it takes generally about only 2 - 3 weeks. So you can build a reasonably good hangar of ships in maybe 1 - 3 months. Of course, there are players who like to collect everything, so upgrading and buying all ships is going to take some time. But it isn't necessary to own every ship to have a lot of fun in the game. Each ship offers a distinct playstyle, and it only takes 2 weeks or so (assuming you are already better at the game from a few good ships to clear more waves per day) to fully ult a new ship. 2 weeks for a new ship and a new playstyle sounds fair to me, at least.

And finally, there's apexes. They seem horribly expensive. But put it this way, many apexes don't drastically change the playstyle of the base ship. So you are just buying apexes for the ship because you really love the ship and want to invest more in it. Also, given the game has been already out for many years, many veteran players have already fully ult-ed all their ships, and need a credit sink. If you are the most complete collection-ist out there, then yes, it might be frustrating. But isn't being a complete collection-ist already a tall task by itself?

This is my personal opinion of why I think the credit earning rate of this game is quite reasonable. The devs also weigh in themselves, which I feel is a very fair viewpoint as well; game devs still need to earn money:

It is a major challenge for us, as developer. This game is free, nothing is blocked behind a paywall or premium currency that can only be obtained with real money. Also, there are only opt-in ads. There are many, many players that play this game for hundreds of hours and never spend any money.

The nature of the game allows people to enjoy it in very different ways. Someone might not be interested in different ships, just their favorite. They just enjoy their daily mission with their favorite ship. That ship is 'done' upgrading very quickly and even the Apex forms can be obtained within a relatively short time, compared to how often they want to play their daily mission with their favorite ship. This person might want to play with their favorite ship on a daily basis for months or even years and still want something to save credits for. They wish there was more to unlock for their favorite ship.

Other players want to collect all ships and all upgrades and all apex forms, the collection competionist. We want these players to enjoy the game as well and offer them things to unlock while also providing goals that take more time to complete.

Finding a way cater to all these players and all these requests has been the biggest challenge for us. From the start we tied the earnings to the primary feature of the game that is the Daily Missions. These are designed to offer short gameplay for those that want to spend 2 minutes a day, but also provide gameplay for those that want to spend 2 hours a day getting the highest badges and high scores. These two types of players and -everything in between- are currently all present in the game and playing on a daily basis. Of course some player that play for 2-minutes-every-day might think it is unfair it cannot obtain a "Best of the Best" badge like the 2-hour-a-day gamer. While the 2-hour-a-day gamer might think it is unfair that these 2-minute players are able to gather roughly the same amount of credits, because constant grinding of the same mission is not rewarding credits. But we have to find a middle ground. It's a process we are constantly tweaking and have been for the past 7+ years.

I agree that if you want to collect -everything- it looks like an impossible and very intimidating task, especially when you are learning the game and grasping the scope. But, on the other hand there are people playing this game for 7 years on a daily basis and they are asking for more stuff to play for. Increasing the credit earnings per day will just shorten the lifespan of a part of the 'collection' part of it. It would still take time and afterwards there still needs to be more stuff to unlock to use those credits on. And that's what we are going for. More cool stuff to spend credits on :) Yes, we need to earn some money, that is part of the process, otherwise we could not continue doing this.

Q16: All Missions Completed

I'm bored of this game, there's just nothing to do after I complete what I could for all the available missions for the day.

First thing that needs to be cleared up: An Endless Mode for Phoenix 2 is NOT coming, as confirmed by the devs. Stop asking for it because it is a design choice chosen by the devs.

Here are some suggestions that you can try if you find yourself bored:

• Play another ship or apex on the same mission: Many ships have drastically different playstyles. It won't feel stale - in fact sometimes you open up new ways to play the game! You gain credits over time and it takes about 2-3 weeks to get enough to fully ult an un-upgraded ship.
• If you are stuck at clearing Specialist Missions because you don't have a sufficiently upgraded ship, try completing the Specialist Mission with a mostly un-upgraded ship, and keep burning revives to get further. This involves a very survival mindset which will train your wit, perseverance, dodging skills and precision on technique execution (such as turret priority elimination).
• Create a new account and play it: Your set of ships will be different because of the Warp Gate's RNG, and the rank that you reach may also differ. You can even intentionally place the new account in a different rank than your existing account(s) so that you get to experience the game differently in daily and specialist missions. Join a different community than your existing account(s) as well to get a different community mission!
  • Alternatively, if you don't want to grind your way again to get a suitable inventory of ships, and simply wish to use the current ships and apexes you have on a different rank + league, there is an extreme trick that you can use to gain access to a different daily, community and specialist mission. Take note that there is no actual benefit to doing this trick, and you will not be able to gain additional credits or XP. With that in mind, reveal the spoilers in the next bullet point yourself if you have read the terms and conditions in this bullet point.
  • This trick makes use of the game state after you log out of any account. In this game state, under the Pilot tab, there should be a button that says "Sign In". Throughout this trick, I will refer to this game state as "accountless", since it is not tied to any Firi account. The next thing that you will require is BOTH an adequately strong internet connection AND a very poor internet connection. A poor internet connection shall be defined as still being able to be connected to the internet spot, but unfortunately, you will not be able to do load any webpages, not even the simplest ones (unless it is cached, of course). The best way to achieve having both types of internet connection is to be connected to a powerful internet spot which does not have a far reach. You can then emulate a poor internet connection by being as far away from the internet spot without being disconnected. With this, we shall begin.
    
    1. First connect to your strong internet connection and log out of the Firi account that you wish to use your ship inventory on another rank and/or league which that account is not in. This should being you to the game state of the accountless.
    2. After which, bring up the Firi account login pop-up. Then change the connection to the very poor internet connection. It is important to note that you must not leave the game by minimizing the app.
    3. Key in your account details as usual.
    4. This step will be the crucial step. Tap the "Sign In" text after you filled in the account details, and immediately after that very quickly spam tap on the "Back" text at the top left hand corner of the pop-up window.
    5. If executed successfully, the game will go back to the Pilot tab and nothing happens. It appears that you are still on the accountless. Normally, what happens after you tap to sign out is that after you tap "Back", the Logging In splash screen appears for a short while before you will be changed to the game state of your account. If you get this splash screen, you have failed to execute the process correctly and you must repeat Steps 1 - 4.
    6. Once you have successfully executed step 4 - 5, change back to the strong internet connection. It is important to note that you must not leave the game by minimizing the app.
    7. While in this state, change back to the Play tab and then start the mission with whatever selected ship (which is on the accountless).
    8. Suicide and kill yourself however you please.
    9. Once you go back to the main screen again, the game state gets miraculously updated to that of your Firi account. Only the amount of credits and revives will be updated to that of your Firi account, while the rank and league will still be that of the accountless. The pilot level will go haywire and keep increasing, and you will see XP bar continuously filling up to the max, emptying and then repeating (until the level is finally updated to the actual pilot level of your Firi account, assuming the accountless is of a lower pilot level). The upgrade level of the ship you used will be updated to that of the ship in your Firi account.
       • If the ship you used on the accountless to suicide is a ship you don't have unlocked in your Firi account, a very interesting bug happens. You will actually be able to play this ship you previously did, but the ship upgrade level will be in a strange 1-0-0 state. You didn't read that wrong, you will be confined to the use of a level 1 main without being able to use an Aura or Zen. There will simply be no Aura radius or counter on your ship. The strange phenomenon is shown in the video below:
         
    10. You can now play whatever you ship/apex you have on your Firi account. All 3 types of missions, daily, community and specialist missions will be whatever rank + league of your accountless instead of your Firi account, while the community will be whatever your accountless is on (or not available if your accountless did not join a community). Take note that you will not be able to tap on the mission to see the leaderboards (since your attempts are not recorded, and thus you have no score on the leaderboards no matter what you do), so you will only see the top 6 places that is shown after you ended a game. After you re-log in again (like after minimizing the game), it will be back to normal and the missions will be back to whatever your Firi account is in.
        • It used to be the case where this trick was extremely beneficial, since you could not only participate in other ranks and/or leagues with this trick, but you would actually gain credits for completing these missions as if it was an entirely new mission, which allows you to gain whatever credits the rank + league offers you. Strangely, this credit gaining trick did not work on community missions. This trick meant that it was beneficial to place your accountless in an entirely different rank than your Firi account, as this trick would allow you to gain credits for both daily and specialist missions (since specialist missions are only different by rank). It also allowed you to simply steamroll players in lower ranks and leagues if you were very skilled, you could easily take the top few spots to snag prestigious Top 0.1% and Top 1% badges (which would reflect on your profile when someone taps on your account in the leaderboards). When placed on the leaderboard of the accountless, your rank + league would instead reflect the actual rank + league that your Firi account was really in. Unfortunately, this exploit was patched on 18 September 2019, which no longer allows you to place yourself on the leaderboards of other ranks/leagues which your Firi account did not belong to as well as no longer being able to earn extra credits from daily and specialist missions of other ranks/leagues.

Q17: Challenging yourself

I'm looking for a challenge to try ships that are harder to clear with!

That's great! You can try looking for ships that are low in survivability rating and also low in speedrunning rating. Here are also some ships that are also basically "harder" versions of another ship. (Note that the inequality is based on harder ships are "larger" than easier ships.)

• Photurius < Cinnri
• Mist Star & Oran < Polaris
• Qhelqod < Jn'Dur < Kada Veni
• Exarch < Neni
• Kibarrax < Buhloo
• Tar'Cah & Zephyr < Vuxine
• Lorilou < 502-Q8
• Elyon < Ogon
• Fujin < Havoc
• NC-150 < NC-271
• Prime X < Xaniea

Q18: Phoenix 2 Predecessor Game

Given this game is called Phoenix 2, is there a predecessor version of Phoenix 2?

Yes, there is! The predecessor game is called Phoenix HD, and can be found exclusively on the iOS / Mac App Store only. Android users are currently unable to play the predecessor version Phoenix HD.

Do understand that the gameplay of Phoenix HD is very different. They only share a common trait which is both are Japanese Bullet Hell shmup games, so expect lots of dodging. However, Phoenix HD is more focused on dodging and there aren't many abilities to use. You also have actual health, so you won't die in one shot and you can recover health. They also share the ships Phoenix, Corsair, Trinity, Shogun & Mirage. However, they operate very differently as the Phoenix HD's version of these ships are likely to feel weaker since they have multiple different weapon types crammed onto one ship. (Also, not to mention, weapon upgrades are only temporary in one game in Phoenix HD compared to Phoenix 2 where weapon upgrades are permanent.)

Here are some videos on how these ships played in the predecessor game.

Phoenix

Corsair

Trinity

Shogun

Mirage